Completely confused!

[Shannon2006]

I am 33 years old and a mother of three. When I was twenty five or so, while sitting at my desk, I had what felt like a fish flopping around in my chest. It lasted only a few seconds but scared the heck out of me. I made an appointment with a cardiologist. He suggested a series of tests and asked if I had been suffering any unusual stress. I was just finishing a horrible divorce which resulted in me losing about 40 pounds in three or so months. He stated well stress does funny things to you. So here goes the tests....holter monitor, ECG, stress echo, shooting dye in my veins and running on a tread mill...then lying in some machine which ran circles around my body for about an hour, and more I can't even remember the names of...all negative ~ clean bill of health....so the weird flopping fish thing continued on from time to time and usually at no specific time...watching t.v, or just whenever...so then I decided to schedule a follow appointment a few years later jut to make sure he didn't miss anything...several tests later...nothing..still healthy. So, I consider plastic surgery...but because I had never been knocked out before I decide to have a check up again..before my check up, I has been stressing hard about going under...read all kinds of articles which scared the bee jeezy out of me. (I am OCD and stress hard about almost everything). I go to bed one night and before going to sleep I begin feeling as if I have a sudden desire to escape. My head and hands became tingly and I felt light headed and dizzy. I thought I was having a heart attack so I jumped out of bed in a panic...I ran outside and the cold air made me feel better quick. Well I began having them a little more often, if I felt crowded or hot or anxious they would happen. The episode would last only a few seconds to a few minutes tops. So I go back to the cardiologist and tell him what happened. He said I need to see a psychiatrist but says he will run the same tests again to make me happy.  

[CCFHeartMD 12]

Based on your description of the symptoms I think it is likely that you are suffering from panic attacks, rather than a cardiac condition, especially since multiple studies of your heart were normal.  I would check a thyroid function and electrolytes before seeing the psychiatrist, just to make sure that there are no reversible medical conditions which could manifest as panic attacks. Good Luck!

[Shannon2006]

Thank you everyone for your comments. I am having further testing and have made an appt. with a shrink...lol

[achillea]

You are describing the classic--and I mean classic--symptoms of a panic attack.  I mean, the 'desire to escape' is textbook!

I have panic attacks myself.  They are seriously not fun, because you start to take your physical symptoms soooo seriously, even though repeated tests have shown nothing wrong, as in nada, zero, zilch.

Here is what worked for me:  I did in fact see a psychiatrist, who diagnosed--you guessed it--panic attacks.  He prescribed medication, since he believes (as I do) that this is a medical problem and not a matter of strength of will or whatever.  My guy really knows his physiology and pharmacology, and was able to choose intelligently among the meds available, bearing in mind the fact that I do actually have some mild heart issues.  

In my case, my panic attacks come in bunches every few years when I am for some reason susceptible to them.  Having tried about five different SSRIs, I have settled on low-dose Zoloft as the best for me, and I take the drug for about four months (long enough for my internal alarm system to 'cool off,' as my shrink puts it), and then taper off.

I'm fine then for another couple of years, and when the attacks return, I know that there's help for me.   Thank goodness, there really is help.

Go ahead and see a shrink.  The hardest part is picking up that phone and making an appointment.  The assessment is actually easy and quite a relief.